The Physiology / Surgery Core (PSC; Core C), used by all of the Projects of this PPG, will offer integrated services for assessing heart function and structure in settings that mimic cardiac pathology in mice. Accordingly, Core C will maintain equipment and provide staffing to offer Projects the following services: 1) Physiology: echocardiography, invasive hemodynamics, isolated working heart preparation, and 2) Surgery: in vivo myocardial infarction, reperfusion, transaortic constriction, and intramyocardial adoptive transfer cell injection. The PSC is centrally located in the SDSU BioScience Center, which houses the SDSU Heart Institute labs and administrative offices. The PSC is composed of fully equipped surgery and physiology suites and dedicated mouse holding rooms. PPG investigators both institutions will be able to fully utilize PSC resources with on demand availability of two part-time trained cardiac surgeons, a physiology technician, and a mouse husbandry specialist. All required equipment including a Visualsonics Vevo 770 and Scisense hemodynamic assessment package are in place and operational in the PSC. The PSC is under the direction of Dr. Mark Sussman, who has a legacy of publications in the techniques offered by core and is well versed in administration of such services for Program participants. Dr. Glembotski brings his decades of experience in mouse physiology and surgery as co-Director of the PSC. An additional advantage of the PSC is that it adjoins the SDSU Heart Institute Mouse Genetics Center, which facilitates the generation and use of genetically modified mice by Projects. The PSC was designed specifically to serve this multi-institutional PPG; accordingly, it will maximize collaborations between projects, thus enhancing the synergy of this integrated research program. The PSC complements and integrates with the Cell Biology / Histology Core (CBHC) by serving as the location where principles discovered using cells generated with cells from the CBHC will be assessed in a pathophysiological in vivo context that mimics cardiomyopathic conditions. The PSC will be equally used by all four Projects of the Program.